Sorry for the absence, life has been a bit busy. Hope everyone enjoys.
At District 21:
"What's so important?" Hailey asks, walking into the bullpen.
Everyone is at their desks sitting quietly, Adam, upon hearing Hailey's question, motions to Voight's office. Hailey looks and sees Superintendent Miller and Voight having a conversation, more like Miller talking and Voight listening. She looks stern and determined as she speaks.
As the door opens for her to leave she says, "Reports tonight Sergeant."
"You'll have a full account, Ma'am," Voight states as he follows her out of his office.
Miller walks past everyone but stops in front of Hailey who is standing next to Adam's desk, "How's Detective Halstead?" she asks.
Hailey looks at the Superintendent and quickly looks away and responds in a monotone.
"He's had a rough day."
Miller acknowledges Hailey's answer with a nod and turns to Voight, "Tonight." She leaves the bullpen.
"Sarge," Adam starts "reports?" He asks.
"Superintendent Miller wants a full account from each of us of how it went down today," Voight says. He pauses and looks at Kevin, "There have been some…... allegations."
"Allegations!?" Kevin responds with shock and questioning. He stands. "About what?" as he places his hand on his hips.
"Red is accusing the CPD of excessive force during the arrest."
"EXCESSIVE FORCE?" Kevin says, throwing his hands in the air. "He was on top of Halstead. What was I supposed to do? Let him hit Jay?"
"Again." Adam adds.
Everyone looks at him.
Hailey looks towards the ground. Voight looks around the unit. "Miller wants a full account. We have nothing to worry about. We tell the truth. Reports tonight."
At Chicago Med
Will is finishing up the day's charts when a message alerts on his phone. He quickly reads it and sighs. Maggie notices.
"Trouble Dr. Halstead?"
He signs his last chart, looking at Maggie and says, "Hospitals aren't Jay's favourite place." As he walks away.
"Anything we can do to help." Maggie adds as he walks by
"Thank you." Will says over his shoulder.
Will walks into Jay's room. The lights are dimmed making the monitors bright and there's a new ice bag at the foot of his bed. The bed is raised and Jay looks to be asleep. He watches Jay breathe and then the monitors. Will sighs again.
"What?" A quiet croak from the bed.
Will looks down at Jay. Jay's eyes are still closed.
"Hey, how you feeling?"
"Like I don't want to be here." He says just above a whisper.
"I know but you need to be."
"Mmmm"
"Heard you gave the nurse a hard time."
Jay opens his eyes, his left mostly closed, "I asked to be left alone. That's all."
"That's not what I heard." Jay looks at Will. "She was trying to help you." Will moves closer to Jay's bed on his right-side, picks up and places the ice bag over his diaphragm. But Jay intercepts it with his left hand.
"No." Jay says in a stronger voice, weakly swatting at the bag.
"This will help, and by the way you're breathing. You can use some help."
Jay just stares at Will and then, "It's cold."
"Yes Jay, ice is cold." Will chuckles.
"Hurts." Jay adds quieter. His left hand hovers over his chest.
Will's concern is immediate, from caring brother to Doctor in a second. He places the ice on the bed, puts on his stethoscope and places it to Jay's left-side. Jay flinches. "I know. Just breathe easy."
Jay tries and Will listens to various locations on Jay's chest. This takes a few minutes.
Surprisingly Jay doesn't protest, just breathes with his eyes closed. He can feel the pressure and manages to stifle most of the pain, only releasing a few low painful groans.
"You sound alright, you're just not breathing as deeply as I would like." Will says, noticing that Jay isn't opening his eyes, he asks "How bad's the headache?"
"Humm…...not too bad…..face hurts more."
"Get you some more pain relief for the headache and you're really swollen from the fracture, some more ice therapy will help with that too."
Jay groans his response.
"What else…" Will says now looking at Jay's wrist, he checks his circulation and feels a strong pulse. He takes Jay's fingers in his hand and notices how cold they are, "Squeeze." Jay closes his hand but without much authority, then with a hiss quickly stops and goes limp.
"Pain in the shoulder? Or wrist?"
"Wrist." Jay answers quickly.
Will reaches over and feels Jay's left hand and arm. "You need to tell someone when you're cold Jay."
Jay opens his eyes and looks at Will. Will smirking back at him.
"Instead of just snapping at the nurse trying to manage your ice therapy, you could have just said you were cold. Did you really even warm up from when you were brought in?"
The look on Jay's face reveals all.
"My brother…..the great communicator. You know not complaining won't get you released any faster but not telling us how you're doing will make you stay longer. Believe it or not, we don't want to keep you here any longer than you have to. I know you're more comfortable at home and don't like it here. But I want you to get the best care too."
Jay is listening to his brother's speech. He sheepishly looks down at the bed then back at Will.
"Unfortunately ice therapy is the best course of action. It will reduce the swelling and help with the pain. I would like to see you breathing more normally."
Jay lightly sighs and gives a little nod of understanding.
"So with that being said," Will continues "I'll get you one of those heated blankets you like so much. You're almost ready for your next dose of pain meds- adjust that a bit for greater relief. Let you relax for a bit and then continue with the ice therapy."
It's a quiet moment between the brothers as Jay continues to listen.
"The nurses know what they're doing, Jay. You may see it as bothering you, but alternating the ice is the best way, you don't want four ice bags on you all at once. But you still need to let them know if it's getting to be too much. Need to find that balance."
Will takes another moment.
"Unless you secretly like being here." Will teases "and in that case, you can continue to be your grumpy self."
Jay just gives Will a look as Will laughs and leaves the room.